My smile, which I tried to maintain as radiant as possible all the way through the tour, hided a deceiving expression of my eyes, covered by my sunglasses. However, Cameron, who received me at the entrance ready to smoke a bidi must've seen I wasn't going to fit, when placing me in a pretty cool spot in one of the huts. Still, a thin mattress covered by a mosquito net on one of the sides of the hut wasn't the comfort I was looking for. I could hardly spread my things out, and so, I was stuck there the two compulsory weeks.
Sadhana Forest is not an NGO, it's not even an organization or association. It forms part of Auroville, a vision, an idea, to create a city for unity, for meditation, without religions, and with a strong sense of sustainability. A free place for everyone that believes in those principles. A city planned for 50.000 inhabitants and still in construction. But more of Auroville later on.
Auroville is based in many communities that held volunteers from all over the world. Sadhana Forest is one of those places, where Yorit and Aviram had been taking care of the place or the past 4 years. It's a land that once had been an Evergreen Tropical Forest. It had been reforested with foreign plants, and their idea was to regenerate that forest again with native trees. A great deal of an effort.
Within the Forest, a compound with several huts was created. It is to be a sustainable vegan community. So there is no electricity in the huts, except for the kitchen, the main hut and the toilets. The energy was provided by solar panels, so extreme care had to be taken of them if you wanted energy at night. In they would not provide energy, the batteries could be powered by cycle power. Some kind of static bicycles that would regenerate the batteries by peddling.
In each of the 5 toilets, there was a place for peeing and a spot for pooing. The poo pots, made of ceramic, contained a mixture of poo, toilet paper and resin, used to cover the poo and avoid the smelling. No peeing was allowed in there. Altogether would be used as compost.
Cooking, was done with specially cylindrical structures designed to consume less wood, about 10% of what would be needed in an open fire. Coconuts, pineapples, peanuts, bananas or papayas were grown around the compound, and compost was used for their planting and growth. Leftovers were separated in raw food and cooked food for such a purpose.
Water for general uses is pumped and all washing places are thought to use the less amount of water possible. And in this kind of thinking, we used natural biodegradable soaps, not being permitted unnatural products for personal use such as deodorants or shaving creams.
Not only the community is focused towards environmental conservation and sustainable development, but it's also into veganism and the use of unprocessed foods. The hardest part to endure. And not only for me, a convinced meat eater, but for vegetarians and vegans as well. The concept went too far away, not being permitted tea, or fried food. Fried food, OK I can understand, but tea? That is far away my comprehension limits.
For some reason, at some stage, everyone had a point in common, the craving for sugar. And it's not that there is no sugar around. We got it every single day on our daily fruit salad that always contains papaya, and in the our daily ragi. And though meals are surprisingly good, or can be, depending on the chef, it's always the same thing and it gets boring.
This is no more than a general view, which can sound good, though reality can also be very different. And so the details will come later on...
Sadhana Forest is not an NGO, it's not even an organization or association. It forms part of Auroville, a vision, an idea, to create a city for unity, for meditation, without religions, and with a strong sense of sustainability. A free place for everyone that believes in those principles. A city planned for 50.000 inhabitants and still in construction. But more of Auroville later on.
Auroville is based in many communities that held volunteers from all over the world. Sadhana Forest is one of those places, where Yorit and Aviram had been taking care of the place or the past 4 years. It's a land that once had been an Evergreen Tropical Forest. It had been reforested with foreign plants, and their idea was to regenerate that forest again with native trees. A great deal of an effort.
Within the Forest, a compound with several huts was created. It is to be a sustainable vegan community. So there is no electricity in the huts, except for the kitchen, the main hut and the toilets. The energy was provided by solar panels, so extreme care had to be taken of them if you wanted energy at night. In they would not provide energy, the batteries could be powered by cycle power. Some kind of static bicycles that would regenerate the batteries by peddling.
In each of the 5 toilets, there was a place for peeing and a spot for pooing. The poo pots, made of ceramic, contained a mixture of poo, toilet paper and resin, used to cover the poo and avoid the smelling. No peeing was allowed in there. Altogether would be used as compost.
Cooking, was done with specially cylindrical structures designed to consume less wood, about 10% of what would be needed in an open fire. Coconuts, pineapples, peanuts, bananas or papayas were grown around the compound, and compost was used for their planting and growth. Leftovers were separated in raw food and cooked food for such a purpose.
Water for general uses is pumped and all washing places are thought to use the less amount of water possible. And in this kind of thinking, we used natural biodegradable soaps, not being permitted unnatural products for personal use such as deodorants or shaving creams.
Not only the community is focused towards environmental conservation and sustainable development, but it's also into veganism and the use of unprocessed foods. The hardest part to endure. And not only for me, a convinced meat eater, but for vegetarians and vegans as well. The concept went too far away, not being permitted tea, or fried food. Fried food, OK I can understand, but tea? That is far away my comprehension limits.
For some reason, at some stage, everyone had a point in common, the craving for sugar. And it's not that there is no sugar around. We got it every single day on our daily fruit salad that always contains papaya, and in the our daily ragi. And though meals are surprisingly good, or can be, depending on the chef, it's always the same thing and it gets boring.
This is no more than a general view, which can sound good, though reality can also be very different. And so the details will come later on...
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